


Given Half A Chance

by HarliForever110



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, F/M, Harli - Freeform, POV First Person, US Women's Soccer National Team, USWNT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 20:01:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5062096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarliForever110/pseuds/HarliForever110
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hope always thought that she would have Carli to herself, until one day, when everything changes. Will Carli's engagement to Brian tear her and Hope apart... or bring them closer together?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> While the characters are real, the events are not. This is purely for entertainment. Obviously, this story will ignore the fact that Hope is married. Oh, and this is my first attempt at publishing a fanfic, so go easy on me please!

**Hope's POV:**

     I always knew that this day would come. But I never thought that it would come so soon. And I would have never believed that I would be so affected by what was going to happen.

***     *     ***

     My phone buzzed, indicating a new text message. I pulled it out of my front pocket, but before I could unlock my screen, it began to ring. I looked across the table at Abby, and with an apologetic smile, stood up and walked outside.

     I unlocked my screen to answer the call. The person on the other end immediately began to speak. She was talking so quickly I couldn't even understand what she was saying.

     "Woah, woah, slow down! I couldn't understand anything you just said."

     "Oh, sorry. I, um, I said that Brian proposed to me. Today. At my old soccer field." Carli replied, this time in a calm voice.

     I let her words sink in. As I slowly began to process what she had just told me, I looked around for a place to sit. I **needed** a place to sit. I walked a few feet from the entrance to the cafe and sat on an unoccupied bench. Carli had begun talking again, but I couldn't hear a word she said. Something about what she had just told me made me lose my breath. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

     "Hope, are you listening?!" Carli exclaimed almost angrily. I snapped back to attention, and when I did, I realized that I had started crying. 'What the fuck?' I thought. 'I never cry.'

     "Uh, no. Sorry. Hey, thanks for letting me know about, uh, about you and Brian. But, uh, I'm keeping Abby waiting, and you know how impatient that woman gets! So, I'll-- I'll call you later. Bye," I said quickly while wiping away the tears that had slid down my cheeks.

     I ended the call without waiting for a goodbye from Carli and put my phone back in my pocket. Why had her news made me so emotional? Well, I guess it was natural to be emotional about your best friend getting engaged. Right?

     I went back into the cafe where Abby was already chowing down on her BLT. As I sat down, I couldn't shake the dark feeling in the pit of my stomach. For the rest of our lunch, I was only able to pick at my chicken salad sandwich.

     Abby looked over at me, and when I made eye contact, she raised her eyebrows. I braced myself for an interrogation about my failure to eat, but instead, she asked if I was going to eat the rest of my sandwich. I told her I wasn't.

     As we got up to leave, my phone buzzed again. I unlocked my screen and saw that it was a text from Carli. It read: Hey, don't really know why you brushed me off... It's fine though. Would really like to talk later, if that's okay with you.

     I locked my screen once more and put my phone back in my pocket. Abby looked at me curiously.

     "You not gonna answer that?" I looked over at her and saw that she looked genuinely concerned. I shook my head, but said nothing. Abby just shrugged.

     She held the door for me as we exited the cafe and headed to her car. It had become cool and cloudy outside, and I couldn't help but notice that this change in the weather mirrored my change in mood exactly.

***     *     ***

**Carli's POV:**

     I checked my phone for what had to be the fifteenth time in the last five minutes. I kept hoping that Hope would either text or call me, but there was only radio silence. As I walked into the kitchen, I nearly ran smack into Brian, who was heading to the living room with a sandwich.

     "Hey, babe. You want some lunch? I can go fix you a sandwich."

     "No thanks. I'm going to try to go out for dinner later with Hope, if she'll respond to my calls," I answered with a frown.

     "Oh, is everything alright with you two?" he asked while taking a bite out of his sandwich. I looked back down at my phone, willing it to ring. **Was** everything alright between us?

     "I guess so. You know Hope... Sometimes she gets in those moods where you can't tell how she's feeling. I think I just need to talk to her and see what's up." Brian nodded and leaned down to kiss my forehead.

     "I'm sure you'll figure it out. You know Hope better than anyone." I smiled at him as he walked into the living room. I checked my phone one more time before I put it in my pocket, deciding to give Hope the space she seemed to need. But as I started to head up the stairs to take a quick shower, I realized that if I left Hope alone, she may not open up to me for weeks. I decided that I would fly over to Maryland and meet up with the team at their hotel a day earlier than I had planned. That way, I could get to the bottom of Hope's evasiveness as soon as possible. I continued up the stairs and began packing quickly.

 

***     *     ***

**Hope's POV:**

     After we got back to the hotel where the team was currently staying, Abby and I went our separate ways. I pulled out my key card to open my door, all the while trying to stifle a yawn. It was only around 3 o'clock and I was already tired. Unfortunately, I wouldn't get to have a nap because Jill was forcing us to go to a team dinner later that night, and I was going to need at least an hour-long shower to clear my head after hearing Carli's news. I still couldn't figure out why I had become so emotional about Carli telling me that she and Brian were now engaged. I mean, I had known that they were probably going to get married some day. They had known each other for, like, forever, and they seemed to be in love. I guess I just didn't expect them to get engaged so soon.

     I pushed my thoughts of Carli and Brian away as I entered my hotel room. I needed to clear my mind, not muddle it even more. I would take a shower, get ready for the dinner, and then sit down to read---

     "Hey, stranger." I looked up to see Carli sitting on the bed with her arms crossed. I attempted to remain calm and not let her see that her appearance in my hotel room was kind of freaking me out.

     "Oh, hey Carli. When-- when did you get here?"

     "About ten minutes ago."

     "Oh, well, that's cool. I thought you were going to fly in tomorrow, though?" I moved over to the desk in the corner of the room to set my jacket down and then turned back towards the bed. "I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you..."

     "Well, considering the fact that you wouldn't answer any of my calls or texts, I decided that I needed to come down tonight. By the way, where do you want to eat?" Oh, no. I wouldn't be able to take sitting down to dinner with Carli just so she could reprimand me for not talking to her earlier. Luckily, I had a team dinner to use as my excuse.

     "I'm sorry, Carli, I would love to go out for dinner tonight, but Jill is making us go to a team dinner, so... Can we reschedule?" I said with an apologetic smile.

     "Actually, Hope, I've already talked to Jill. She's giving us a one-time pass to get out of the team dinner and go wherever we want tonight." My face dropped. I was going to have to suck it up and get through this night.

     "Oh, well that's-- that's great! Um, we can go to Carrabba's, if that's alright with you. You know how much I love Italian food!" I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Normally, I would have been super happy to skip out on a team dinner and go out to eat with Carli instead. I couldn't understand why tonight was different. 'Why does this all feel so wrong?' I thought.

     Carli looked at me, her face serious. She looked like she was about to chide me for some horrible wrongdoing. Luckily, she just shook her head and then broke into a smile. "Yeah, I know how much you love your pasta. Well, I'll wait while you get ready. What time do you want to leave?"

     "I guess around 5 or 5:30. The restaurant isn't too far away." I looked over to see her still smiling at me. I could only guess what she was thinking as I returned the smile before heading off to the bathroom to take a much-needed shower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my story. If you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been a long time since I touched this story and for anyone who was waiting on an update, I'm so sorry it took so long. I hope you are still around and give me another chance. I think I'm going to try to finish this story at some point, so expect some sporadic updates. I just started college and I'm going to have to focus on my work there, but I suddenly felt motivated to return to fanfic writing. So that's what I'm doing. Hope you enjoy!

**Carli's POV:**

     Okay, so Hope was definitely acting weird around me. Her discomfort filled the room and nearly choked me, it was so intense. But I attempted to keep my own mood light and pretend that I didn't notice how she was avoiding my gaze as much as she could. I watched her go into the bathroom to get ready for our outing, all the while silently formulating a plan to get her to open up to me over pasta and wine.

*     *     *

     We arrived at Carrabba's at 6:30, Hope having taken a very long shower. To her credit, she tried extremely hard to act like nothing was wrong; she came around to my side of the car and opened the door like she always did. She also opened the door to the restaurant for me, but when I said 'thank you', she barely nodded her head at me. 'Where was her head at?', I wondered while walking to the table. 

     As we both sat down, I took the chance to glance at her. She was still avoiding my gaze and was looking down at the table, as though she were afraid that I was going to reach across the table and slap her. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Normally, Hope was a ball of energy, always using her charming personality to make me laugh and smile. But tonight was showing a side of Hope that I had never seen. I couldn't pinpoint exactly the emotion I saw in her eyes; it was seemingly a mix of hurt and fear.

     But what had I done to make her act and feel this way?

*     *     *

**Hope's POV:**

    Did she think I couldn't feel her staring at me? I attempted to keep my eyes focused on the wall, the menu, the candle on the table, anything but Carli's face. 

    "Hope, what---", Carli attempted, but to my relief, she was cut off by the waiter. I relaxed a little, able to slip briefly back into my normal emotional state while in the presence of someone other than just Carli. The waiter quickly took our drink order and then disappeared to the kitchen, once again leaving me alone with Carli and her stares. I think she sensed the return of my extreme discomfort, because she didn't attempt to speak again and took an outrageous amount of time to unroll her napkin and place her silverware on the table in front of her.

     It was only after we had gotten down to the last scraps of our dinners that Carli began to speak. Her tone was cautious and she spoke so softly that I could barely hear her over the noise of the restaurant around us.

     "Hope, what's wrong? I'm worried about you." For some reason, my gut twisted at those last four words. An anger that was so unfounded it almost brought me to tears welled up in my mind. I could only think one thing: why would she be worried about me? But as soon as that thought popped up, it was gone. I felt deflated and once again couldn't bring myself to look directly at Carli. 

     "I'm not sure what's wrong, Carli. I think I may just be a little under the weather." I forced the lie out and knew that as soon as the words had hit the air, Carli didn't believe them. I finally, begrudgingly, looked up at her, expecting her to have a doubtful expression. But to her credit, she had fixed her features into a semi-placated expression, and just nodded her head at me.

     "That must be what it is. I just want to know... are **we** okay?" She raised one eyebrow and gave me a questioning look, the most genuine look she had given me all night. I nodded my head at her but didn't trust myself to say anything out loud. She didn't look completely satisfied with my non-verbal answer, but she must've felt sorry for me because she didn't question me further. 

*     *     *

     I held the door open for her on the way out, the same as when we had come into the restaurant. By now, it was getting dark and the street lamps had already been turned on, illuminating us in a yellowish glow. As we walked over to the car, Carli turned suddenly towards me, scaring the shit out of me with her abrupt movement. 

     "Hope, I asked Jill if you were rooming with anyone and she said no, so... well, I figured I would be rooming with you like always. But if you aren't comfortable with that right now..."

     "No, Carls, it's fine. Really." My tone was deadpan and not at all convincing, but Carli smiled anyway. She nodded quickly at me and then got into the passenger seat of the car. I walked around to the driver's side and slowly got in. As I started the car and pulled onto the road that would lead us back to the hotel, I prayed that God or any other higher power would give me a sign, let me know what it was that was bothering me. Because I sure as hell had no clue what had happened earlier when Carli told me her news.

     We soon pulled into a parking space at the hotel, and as I unbuckled my seat belt, Carli spoke.

     "Hope, thanks for letting me steal you from the team dinner. I know things are odd right now for whatever reason, but I just want you to know that I'm here for you, no matter what." With that, she did something so out of the ordinary for her that I knew immediately that it was the sign I had been praying for on the ride back to the hotel.

     She had leaned across the console and kissed me on the cheek. Then, as if nothing had happened, she got out of the car and walked into the hotel, leaving me struggling to breathe in the driver's seat. And it was in that moment that it all became clear. I was so upset by Brian and Carli's engagement not because I was so happy for them, but because I, Hope Solo, was in love with Carli Lloyd, my best friend and teammate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was long enough! As before, your comments are much appreciated! And thanks for coming back to this story with me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll try to get the next one out to you all soon!


End file.
